Report shows tuition caps slow price increases at Ohio public colleges and universities

1/31/2012
BLADE NEWS SERVICES

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Price caps have put the brakes on tuition increases at Ohio's public colleges and universities.

A new report from the higher education overseers at the state Board of Regents shows students have seen their costs go up just 2 percent in the last five years. From 1996 to 2006, tuition went up an average of 9 percent annually.

The Ohio Legislature put the caps in place in 2008. Most schools may raise tuition no more than 3.5 percent per year.

Regents' spokeswoman Kim Norris tells The Columbus Dispatch that Ohio's four-year public universities still had the 12th-highest prices in the nation during the 2009-10 academic year, the latest for which there are numbers. But she says the schools have done a great job of holding down costs.